“There are millions of Portuguese who have been waiting and despairing for weeks that the Government has not yet paid them their IRS refund. That is why, in a time of social crisis, the CDS calls on the Prime Minister to be as quick to pay what he owes to families, as it was to transfer money to Novo Banco ”, says the Christian Democratic leader in a video sent to Social Communication.

In this short message, Rodrigues dos Santos insists on the CDS proposal to create an account settlement mechanism, arguing that, “if the Government charges the day before and pays late and at bad times, it is inconceivable that the Portuguese cannot pay what they owe to the State, such as IMI, with what they have to receive from the IRS ”.

At the end of last week, the president of the CDS proposed an account settlement mechanism between the State and taxpayers, allowing the amounts owed by the State to be discounted in taxes payable by companies and families.

"The CDS proposes the creation of an account settlement mechanism, which allows any person or company to which the State is late to pay, to be able to discount the amount of overdue invoices, to pay their taxes and contributions", he said at the time Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos.

This tool would not have "costs for people and companies" and would be applicable "in cases where people and companies are creditors of the State and, at the same time, debtors of any tax, contribution or fee", and would be put in practice through "credit compensation".

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Finance reported that, to date, the tax authorities had already processed 622,765 thousand IRS refunds, to the amount of 502 million euros, of which more than 328,500 have already been paid, with the rest to reach the account taxpayers by the end of this fortnight.

This year, the Ministry of Finance did not set an average deadline for the return of the IRS, not least due to the contention measures for contagion of covid-19, the majority of AT employees switched to the teleworking regime, with the ministry announcing the processing of refunds began on April 21.